In TELECOM Digest V24 #48 Fred Atkinson wrote:
> Years ago, I was working for a company that had a radio transmitter on
> the top of a mountain somewhere in Hawaii. I never visited the site (or
> even the state), but we normally monitored and managed our sites by
> dialup lines.
> The unfortunate thing was that though there were a great number of
> radio transmitters on that mountain site, the local Telco had never
> run a cable up there.
> Not immediately knowing this fact, I called to find out what it was
> going to cost to have a line dropped on the site. I was quoted a
> price of ten thousand dollars just for the installation of a cable up
> to the site (they wanted us to incur the entire cost despite the fact
> that there were a large number of other companies needing phone lines
> to control their equipment).
> Of course, there was no way any manager at our company was going to sign
> off for that. So, we had to have our local people frequently stop by
> and check the site to make sure it was running in optimum condition. I
> had found a device that connected to a cell phone and provided an RJ-11
> to plug a telephone device into. But, we decided that there would be so
> much intermodulation on that site that it wouldn't work effectively.
> And this was when cellular was still in its infancy.
Remaining deleted.
Years ago my Sister and Brother-in-Law built their home in northern
Michigan (Lake St Helen). When they contacted GTE (now Verizon) about
getting telephone service they were told that it would cost $15,000
but that as other homes were built and added they would receive part
of that money back with each new telephone installation. My
Brother-in-Law told them to take a hike. He went and rented a backhoe
and installed his own 25 pair underground cable the 2000 feet or so he
had to go. Installed a Demark at the main road where GTE connected his
service. He said it cost him a few hundred dollars. It has been over
ten years and all of the new homes built in that area still don't have
telephone service. Verizon is still requiring someone to pay the
$15,000 (probably more now). A few have asked about hooking to his
cable but for the most part my Sister and Brother-in-Law are the only
year round residents. He is willing to let others on the cable but
said he would require that all who sign on release him of any possible
liability.
Chip Cryderman
Charles Cryderman (Charles.Cryderman@globalcrossing.com)